The futuristic tech that lets F1’s Las Vegas GP generate its own water

For one weekend each year, a stretch of grandstands separates the Bellagio Fountains from 20 cars zipping down the Las Vegas Strip. While Lando Norris’ papaya orange McLaren and Max Verstappen’s leading Red Bull Racing are three races within reach of the championship title, the city faces its own sprint: A race against permanent drought. The excess that accompanies the race weekend, from a Formula 1 car dangling from a club ceiling to the Caesars Palace Emperor Package carrying a $5 million price tag, is best illustrated by the towering fountains misting water — 22 million gallons of it —  460 feet in the air. For a moment, it is hard to remember Formula 1 is racing in a desert.

In Nevada, water isn’t just something you drink. It ends up on local ballots and carries a steep fine for misuse. Water, or lack thereof, determines whether residents swap out their grass lawns for a $3 per square foot payout from the Cash4Grass program, established by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). The Las Vegas Valley Water District’s Water Patrol surveils neighborhood streets, policing residents who wash their cars on non-assigned watering days; and as environmentalists warn of future wars waged over water, Las Vegas is on the brink. Its own regional conflict has been ongoing for over a hundred years. 

The desert state, a dry expanse of land, received just four percent of the lower Colorado River Basin water allotment when the river water was split between South West states in 1922. Despite the state’s stretch of slot machines accounting for $10.2 billion in revenue in 2023, it continues to receive the same amount of water 102 years later. And its supply, overestimated during negotiations, is dwindling.

Formula 1 — calling the 4.225-mile length of casinos, designer stores, Elvis-officiating wedding chapels, and Cirque du Soleil shows home for the race weekend in late November — also uses water from the Colorado River via Lake Mead, according to the SNWA. Thirty thousand gallons of it was used just to clean the track. And although residents and businesses in the area are forced to be cognizant of their water usage, there is no specified water allotment for the race. 

Nearly 100 percent of Las Vegas’ indoor water is recycled and returned to Lake Mead — the source of 90 percent of the city’s water. Outdoor water is lost to the atmosphere. While aquifers drop, the Colorado River drains, and Lake Mead’s bathtub ring where water once reached becomes more pronounced, Las Vegas is learning to adapt. Its restrained use, the equivalent of 100,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, is largely thanks to water recycling measures. 

So, when F1 first considered racing down the Strip, it wanted to do so as sustainably as possible. Evaporative cooling, a water-intensive way to cool indoor stadiums and the second-largest water consumer in Las Vegas, provided a glaring innovation opportunity. 

For the inaugural 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Formula 1 partnered with MGM Resorts, the SNWA, and nonprofit WaterStart to build an atmospheric water generator. The system recycles excess water via an evaporative cooling tower that catches humid air and cycles it through a massive fan. Steam is created in the tower, condensed to water, and used in a cooling system, which according to the Las Vegas Grand Prix and SNWA, can be counted as a reclaimed water credit to offset Formula 1’s consumption. 

Last year, the atmospheric water generator produced 230,000 gallons of water. The project is touted as bringing the Las Vegas Grand Prix closer to being the “first Formula 1 race to achieve zero net water consumption in its history.” 

F1’s Grand Prix Plaza, crammed with hospitality suites and team garages, was built just as the city updated development codes to place a moratorium on the use of evaporative cooling in new construction. 

“While the Las Vegas Grand Prix could have installed evaporative cooling before the moratorium, they made the conscious decision to install a dry-cooling unit that does not consume water,” Bronson Mack, the public information officer at SNWA, said. “Using dry-cooling technology at the Las Vegas Grand Prix Plaza building saves an estimated three million gallons or more per year.”

(Dry cooling towers use cold air instead of cool water to remove heat from buildings, acting like a mega air conditioner.) 

Mack adds, “All the race fans that travel to Las Vegas are using water while they are visiting. Water used for showers, sinks, toilets, and linen washing is reclaimed, highly treated, and sustainably returned to Lake Mead — it has no impact on our water supply.”

The Strip, boasting its own water supply in the form of privately-owned aquifers and wells, has been praised as a leader in conservation by doing a lot with little water supply. “It’s not a marketing tactic, and in fact, other states and cities often look to Las Vegas to figure out how to use less,” Elizabeth Koebele, a University of Nevada Reno associate professor of political science and affiliate faculty in the hydrologic sciences graduate program, said. The Palazzo, an Italian-inspired luxury hotel, has its own water treatment plant conveniently located in the lower parking garage. The resort claims that the quality of water reclamation is better than the city’s system. MGM aims to reduce water withdrawal intensity by 33 percent by 2025, and current conservation efforts have saved over 5.6 million gallons of water. 

And it’s no secret, casinos and resorts have the cash to build pricy water recovery systems and fund water offset projects. For example, MGM Resorts’ Las Vegas Strip properties reported net 2023 revenues of $8.8 billion, with F1 revenues accounting for $50 million to $70 million, reported Las Vegas (KLAS). An atmospheric water generator may be a more cost-effective solution, pricing out at $400,000.

Formula 1 and its partners insist that the first of its kind water recycling device can be a model for an ever-changing climate and offer solutions needed today. “When major companies like F1 are willing to invest in new technologies such as atmospheric water capture and recycling, they can help prove — and improve — these technologies and make them more widely viable on the market,” Koebele added. 

The atmospheric water generator will not solve Nevada’s water crisis alone, but that may be why it is fitting for Formula 1: A racing series that is inching towards sustainability with the caveat that the most sustainable option is to not race at all.